Skip to main content

Columbia Mallaise

People in Columbia have a strong proprietary feeling about the Mall. Remember the Poinsettia Tree debacle? I have to admit that it is hard for me to understand this. To me the Mall is a commercial entity, nothing more. But it's clear that it has served a particularly important role in the evolution of the New American City.

It was Main Street. Meeting Place. Downtown.

And, because of that, some folks feel that citizens maintain a civic ownership of the Mall. They feel that changes should happen with community input and approval. An example, this post from Chuck Bubeck on the Celebrating Columbia Maryland and its Future Facebook page:

 Look for some new changes coming to the Mall Center Court starting next week in response to customer requests and to better highlight a major crossroads section of the Mall.  More seating and meet up space will be made available by better utilizing the space currently taken by the fountain, which will be removed.  While certainly an iconic landmark in the Mall, it's suitability and use has lessened as times have changed. What will continue however is the symbolic holiday poinsettia tree, which will still be built and displayed each season as it has for most of the Mall's long history.  The estimated two month work to update the Center Court area will be done at night after closing until 7:00am, beginning in about a week.

                                                            (Photo by Chuck Bubeck)


Responses to Mr. Bubeck's post were, for the most part, negative. A sampling:

  •  Sad
  • Sacrilege 
  • Is it too late to stop this?
  • Don't think I need to visit again.
And one outlier:

I applaud the change.  It always struck me as a waste of potable water and space.

All in all, it was a thoughtful discussion, although it definitely leaned nostalgic. And sad.

I fully admit that there is no way I could understand how long-time residents feel about this. After all, no matter what I do, I can't change the fact that I moved here in 1999. So tell me how you feel. Is this a bad move? 

Should GGP make decisions like this with community input, like CA or County Government? How can it? It's purely a commercial entity. 

Help me out here. Add your opinions: 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Teacher Gifts

Today is the last day of school before the Winter Break. It’s a good time to remember the far-reaching nature of our public school system. You may not have children. You may have sent your children to independent schools. It matters not. You will be impacted one way or another. Yesterday I read a long thread on Facebook about several waves of illness in the schools right now. There’s influenza A and norovirus, I believe. And of course there’s COVID. Apparently in some individual schools the rate of illness is high enough for school admin to notify parents.  When I was little the acceptable holiday gift for a teacher was one of those lovely floral handkerchief squares. (I don’t know what it was for male teachers. They were rare in my elementary years.) These days the range of teacher gifts is wider and I have fond memories of Target gift cards which I have written about before. I think it’s safe to say that giving one’s teacher Influenza, norovirus, or COVID is not the ideal holiday...
1 comment
Read more

They Can Wait

This is not a typical Saturday post. That’s because, in my community, it’s not a typical Saturday.  Oakland Mills High School, after years of deferred repair, needs massive renovation. It’s pretty simple: when you don’t fix a problem it gets bigger. The school system itself said the the OMHS school building was  "no longer conducive to learning" back in 2018.  2018 .  But Thursday the Boad of Education voted to push it out of the lineup of important projects which will be given the go-ahead to proceed soonest.  In my opinion it’s a terrible decision and sets a dangerous precedent. To explain, here’s the advocacy letter I sent in support of Oakland Mills High School. I was rather proud of it. I am writing to ask you to proceed with needed renovation at Oakland Mills High School in the most timely and comprehensive manner humanly possible. I have read the letter sent to you by the Oakland Mills Community Association and I am in complete agreement. You are extremel...
1 comment
Read more

Separate and Unequal

  Remember “Separate but equal”? Remember how that really meant that Black schools languished in  broken-down buildings without adequate heat or toilet facilities, with cast-off, ragged learning materials, underfunded and largely ignored? The Supreme Court struck that down in 1954. The evidence was clear that separate was not equal. Plessy v Ferguson had led to - - no, endorsed - - deeply unequal schooling and opportunities. We tend to think of Brown v Board as being purely about racial integration. It was not.  It was about the logical consequences of segregation. And they were not, not, not equal. The ruling in 1954 didn’t transform public education for non-whites into a land of milk and honey by any means. But it articulated some essential truths in a way that made including everyone a legal precedent which could be relied upon and built upon. It was better than what came before it but it rested upon unsteady ground. It did not necessarily change the hearts or minds ...
1 comment
Read more